TECH NOW: 5 fast and free tech life hacks tested

Here's how to tackle cord tangles and solve four more little everyday tech headaches.

Remove the spring from the inside of the pen and wrap it to protect a charger cord.(Photo: Mike Wehner for USA TODAY)

Story Highlights

For tangle-free earbuds, learn how to wind the cord properly

Set your phone in a ceramic bowl for an on-the-fly sound boost

You can use the volume button on your earbuds to snap a selfie

Tangled earbud cords drive me bananas. I hate digging them out of my purse, jacket pocket, or center console of my car only to have a mess to manage before I can even get to my music. Seems like in 2014 — with tech so advanced — someone would have fixed this hassle by now. So today, we tackle tangles and solve some of tech's biggest little problems fast and free:

• Hold the earbuds in your left hand — and the cord — right where it connects — in the other hand.

• Twist the cord forward, away from your body, with your right hand. Turn it one turn. It automatically makes a small loop that you pinch between the fingers on your left hand and hold. Keep the loop small, about the size of an Oreo cookie.

• Repeat the turn with your right hand, but this time turn the cord backward, toward your body. This time it will make the "under" loop, that you grab again in your left hand.

• Repeat these two steps until you have about two inches of cord left.

• Wind the cord through the loop a few times and pull tight. You should have a small loop of nice, neat cord.

• When you want to use them again, be sure to undo the end that you wound through the loop, then just shake the cables out. It's like magic.

If you need a little more instruction, just watch the Tech Now video that goes with this column to see this little slice of magic for yourself.

2. A LITTLE LOUDER NOW

Setting your smartphone in a cup to help amplify your tunes is a trick as old as the devices themselves, but there's a trick to making it work that seems to have been lost in translation. If you use a glass or plastic cup for this you might be disappointed. The amplification really booms best if you set your smartphone in a ceramic bowl. And if you hear a little tinny-ness to the sound, add a small cloth to the bottom of the bowl. That adds a little bass back in and cuts down reverb.

3. CUTE LITTLE CORD CUBBIES

Another favorite tech life hack of mine is to keep all of your chargers, phone boxes, extra gadget parts, and loose pieces, in an adjustable drawer organizer, like the one pictured here from Real Simple that I picked up on sale at Bed Bath and Beyond. When you tuck all your tech inside, and label the slots with tabs from a household label maker, it looks so clean and organized, you can even leave it sitting out in the open.

4. VOLUME BUTTON SELFIES

Snapping a selfie with an outstretched arm is sooooo 2013. Did you know that you can remotely trigger the shutter of many smartphone cameras using your own headphones?

Most headphones nowadays include inline volume controls, which can act as a remote shutter when plugged into your smartphone. It's like voodoo magic, but it works as long as they're the kind of earbuds that have a volume +/- button on the cord:

• Aim the camera with the earbuds plugged in to the phone.

• Press the volume + button. It will minimize selfie-arm (that horrid condition) and make you feel kind of like a middle school photographer, which is always a plus.

5. CHARGER PROTECTION

Charging cords for your smartphone or tablet aren't cheap, and there's nothing worse than having an expensive cable crack or fray just days or weeks after buying it. You can protect these valuable accessories using the spring out of an old pen.

Remove the spring from the inside of the pen and wrap it around the spot on the end of the cord where the charging connector attaches to the cable — this is the most vulnerable area of the cord and the spot most likely to break down. Now, rather than twisting and bending at will, the connector has a bit more muscle to keep the cord straight and crack-free!

What are some of your favorite tech life hacks? Be sure to share them with us.

Jennifer Jolly is an Emmy Award-winning consumer tech contributor and host of USA TODAY's digital video show TECH NOW. E-mail her at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter: @JenniferJolly.